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Indie Fashion Show By Fashion Indie
Here’s a video clip on the Indie Fashion Show across the Brooklyn Bridge, during Brooklyn Fashion Week. This is was a great event created by the talented minds of Fashion Indie
Check out more videos at ThreadBanger
Lata!
Maliessa
Holding Promotional Events for Your Fashion Business
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
It’s all well and good to send out promotional items and appear at fashion shows, but if you really want to draw attention to what you’re doing with your fashion design business, you’re going to need to run your own events. These can be held for your business launch, when you bring out a new apparel collection, or in celebration of notable successes. They’re an opportunity for you to distribute promotional products and make an impression on the people who really matter.
Of course, the worst thing you can do is to invest a lot of time and resources in an event to which hardly anybody turns up, so it’s important to plan carefully and to advertise effectively. You can use the fashion press for this, but it’s also a good idea to advertise your event at trade shows and by sending promotional items to buyers, retailers and modelling agencies. When you’re more established it can be advantageous to make your events seem more exclusive, but as a new company you should invite people at all levels of the industry. Personal invitations are generally the most successful, and you should be sure to invite everybody whom you’ve directly done business with.
Putting on an Event
The first thing you need to get right when planning an event is the venue. Avoid the temptation to use your own premises, where there’s too much chance of valuable equipment and fabrics getting damaged, or to use your own home, which - unless it’s huge and spectacular - looks unprofessional. If possible, choose a venue with a bar, as most people in the fashion industry like to drink. By arranging a tab with the bar you can offer free drinks to the first few people there, always a good way to get the party started. Of course, as people get drunk they’re more amenable to persuasion, so this is a great opportunity to talk to them about your fashion designs. Needless to say, make sure you don’t get drunk yourself.
Make sure that some of the people at your event are wearing your designer apparel, whether they’re professional models or just good looking friends. It’s important to keep everybody’s minds focused on what the events is about, even whilst they relax and enjoy themselves. This also helps to create a bit of glamour. You can add to the effect by decorating the venue with large pictures of your work. Promotional products like catalogues should be easily available. Make sure there’s a photographer present so that you have some pictures of your event available for future use, especially if well-known people from the fashion industry attend.
You will usually be able to buy materials for your events, such as invitations, decorations and catering supplies, at wholesale prices provided that you identify yourself as a business customer. It’s normal to provide some food at promotional events, but a couple of plates of sandwiches will suffice, and you can always save money by making these yourself. Some venues will offer them for free.
Informal Events
Formal events are not the only way to draw attention to your fashion design business. Sometimes it’s beneficial to break the rules and use an informal venue to gain extra attention. Make sure you have permission to do this, especially if it’s in a public place, and tip off the press before it happens, but let it surprise the public.
Informal events are sometimes held in partnership with stores stocking a particular designer’s apparel, as they’re a great way to boost sales for everybody. They need to be glamorous, so get models involved. Impromptu fashion shows in unusual places are a great way to capture the imagination of the press and the public alike. Distributing free promotional products to the public will help them to remember what the event was about and will make them feel extra good about having been there, encouraging them to spread good word of mouth about your work.
Whatever type of event you go for, make sure that it looks good and that it feels fun to be a part of. For your own part, you’ll probably find it exhausting, but it can be a very effective way to put your new fashion design business on the map.
Creating your Fashion Business Website
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
In this day and age it’s impossible to make it as a fashion designer without a website. Not only is your website essential for online marketing, it can also be a venue for selling clothing direct to the public. But how should you go about setting it up?
The first thing you need to do is to register a domain. This is the online address at which your website will live. Ideally it will feature the name of your business, and you should keep it as simple as possible. You’ll need to pay a monthly fee for this address, but it doesn’t have to be very expensive. You’ll also need to rent server space - the physical space where the data for your site will be kept.
If this already seems too complicated, you can hire a professional web design consultant to help. A professionally constructed website is guaranteed to look good (or you should ask for your money back), but it can be expensive, and in the early stages of building your business it may not be practical. If you would prefer to have a go at constructing you own website, you can find good html and CSS courses online for free. Learning what you need to know to make a simple site is fairly easy. You can always call in a consultant for help with extra features like Flash or Java applets.
The most important thing about your website is that it should be accessible for as many customers as possible. Check that it runs on different operating systems with different browsers. You can then start to tailor it to the needs of your fashion business.
What Should Your Fashion Website Feature?
When people visit a fashion website the first thing they want to know about is the designer. This doesn’t mean you need to write your autobiography - what’s important is your designer brand identity. This should include your logo, a consistent colour scheme, a consistent style and one or two high quality images featuring your most impressive work. You should write a friendly but professional introduction welcoming visitors to the site. This should include lots of words which people looking for a site like yours might enter in search engines. Changing this introduction every week or two will help to keep search engines interested.
It’s essential that your website is easy to navigate. Providing a menu bar at the side or at the top and bottom of each page is the easiest way to do this. This should offer links to each of your other pages. Keep your categories simple. You might want to list clothes by type (eg: ‘jackets’, ’shirts’ etc.), or you might prefer to list them by season (eg: ‘Spring collection’). It’s a good idea to have a ‘new’ page so that returning visitors can check out your latest creations.
Each category page should feature a full size image of one of your designs along with thumbnail images of the others available - visitors can click on these to see larger images. Using thumbnails cuts download times and makes it easier for potential customers to access your site.
Once they’ve seen your designs, visitors will want to know how to buy them. You should either provide an online order and payment system (most online banks can help you set this up for free) or full contact details for your business and advice on how to find your retail outlets.
Online Marketing for your Website
There’s no point in having an impressive fashion website if nobody knows it’s out there. As soon as you’ve launched your website you should start your online marketing campaign. Here are some simple tips to get you started:-
- Make sure you’re listed by as many search engines as possible.
- Arrange to be listed in online fashion directories.
- Arrange to be listed in online business directories.
- Talk about your site in business and social networking communities. Blog about it.
- Participate in link exchange schemes.
All of these options are open to you for free or for very little money, so you should make full use of them before you worry about paying for more traditional online advertising.
Setting up a website for your fashion design business may seem complicated, but provided you take it in simple stages you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve.
Choosing the Right Sewing Machine
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
If you’re working with conventional fabric-based designs, the most important piece of equipment you’ll need for your fashion business is your sewing machine. But modern sewing machines vary enormously, and there are all sorts of different ones on the market, from general models to special buttonholers to embroidery machines. Some require manual setting at every stage and some incorporate computers which can enable you to pre-set them from your patterns. How can you choose the right one for your fashion designs?
The first rule of choosing sewing machines is that you shouldn’t rely on just one. If your machine breaks (even the best ones need repairs from time to time when managing a heavy load) you can experience expensive delays if you don’t have back-up. A simple, older machine will usually suffice to let you get on with basic operations whilst your main machine is being repaired. Of course, depending on the size of your business, you may need several machines anyway.
Sewing Machine Tasks
In most fashion design businesses, sewing machines are not used just for sewing. It’s important to think about the specialist tasks which you may need your machine to handle.
- Buttonholing - Making neat buttonholes by hand is a time consuming task and puts a lot of stress on your fingers, which is something you need to avoid in the fashion design business (many seamstresses end up with damaged hands). Specialist buttonholing machines are cheap and easy to use, but a good general machine should be able to perform this function adequately.
- Embroidery - Whilst most general machines now feature some embroidery options, specialist embroidery machines are the best choice if you want to use your own designs. Much more adaptable, most now make it easy for you to program in your own patterns so that you don’t have to keep making adjustments as you work.
- Zip fitting - Fitting a zip so that it doesn’t pull loose after being used a few times is trickier than it might seem. Look for a machine with a specialist zip option which will also make sure you don’t get any fraying at the bottom of the zip.
- Leatherworking - If you’re working with leather or other heavyweight materials, your sewing machine will need to be strong enough to handle them. Many domestic machines break after doing just a little of this kind of work. Even with the right machine, you’ll need to remember to switch to a heavier grade of needle.
- Working with plastics - Modern clothing often incorporates materials like PVC which cannot be stitched in the ordinary way because the stitches would just tear through and pull out. There are specialist stitches, usually based on a chain pattern, designed to get around this. Specialist machines are available at reasonable prices, but you may be able to find them on a good general machine.
Industrial Sewing Machines
When you’re running a fashion design business and using your machine for several hours every working day, an ordinary domestic sewing machine won’t do. Most of these are simply not designed to handle that sort of strain. You’ll need an industrial quality sewing machine backed by a good guarantee and repairs policy. Be warned - this can add as much as £400 to the price, though if you keep your eyes open for discounts you should be able to get a good machine for about £300 in total. Second hand machines are often in good enough condition to be acceptable as back-up, but are an unwise choice for your primary machine, as you cannot afford the risk of things going wrong all the time.
Although it’s now possible to buy high quality industrial sewing machines online, you should generally aim to have a good look at the machines which interest you before you make your choice. Singer centres are an excellent place to buy sewing machines as they do carry industrial models (though they may not always have them on display) and they offer a very good, low cost guarantee system with repairs usually taking just three to four days. However, they will not collect your machine when it needs to be repaired, so you’ll need to be able to transport it to them yourself. Industrial machines can be very heavy, so make sure you have plans in place for dealing with this eventuality.
If you make sure to buy the right kind of sewing machine for your fashion design business, and if you treat it well, with regular cleaning, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t last you for many long years.
Persuading Retailers to Stock Your Designs
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
If you want to make serious money with your fashion design business, you’re going to have to sell the clothing you produce to shops. Women’s clothing is the largest sector of the fashion industry and women do most of their shopping in person, even if they look at photos of clothes which interest them in magazines and on the internet first. But how do shops choose what apparel to stock? How do they identify potential suppliers? And how can you persuade them that your fashion designs are worth taking on?
Getting Noticed by Clothing Retailers
Ultimately, the only way you will get your work into shops is by producing strong designs with real sales potential. But even if you have those, how can you bring them to retailers’ attention? There are four major ways to approach this:-
- Attend trade shows: Larger retailers, and some small ones, regularly attend trade shows to look for the next big thing in fashion apparel. They’re interested in well made, distinctive clothes which will fit in with upcoming fashion trends.
- Send out catalogues: Good quality photos of your fashion designs, along with thorough descriptions, may persuade retailers to request sample apparel from you or even to place orders directly. Target your catalogues carefully.
- Visit shops: There’s no point in trying to sell your clothing directly to large fashion stores, where the people who choose suppliers won’t be present, but nothing beats personal contact with smaller shops. Do your research first and show them that you understand their business needs.
- Network: Attend fashion-related events and social gatherings and talk to people there about your fashion design business. Exchange business cards and be sure to follow through promptly with a call. Be friendly and make a good personal impression.
Once retailers have seen your work, you’re halfway there. Provided it’s well made and suitable for their own target markets, they may well consider it. Now’s the time to make sure they do. Be pushy. You don’t need to be rude, but you shouldn’t be too polite either, because the competition won’t be. Make sure retailers don’t have the chance to forget who you are. If they show an interest but don’t take on the first set of your designs that they see, contact them every time you have a new clothing collection available.
Keeping Retailers Happy
It’s an exciting moment when you get that first phone call in which somebody says “yes”. You’ll feel relieved and ready to relax a little, as if the big struggle is over - but in fact it’s just beginning.
Once a retailer agrees to stock your fashion designs, you need to negotiate a suitable contract and make the arrangements for delivery. In most cases you won’t be expected to provide a large amount of stock in the first instance, as the retailer will want to wait and see how they sell, but be realistic about your production capacity - it’s better to set a date slightly later than the retailer’s ideal than to let the retailer down by failing to meet that date. Every retailer deals with suppliers in a slightly different way, so try to establish what delivery arrangements will suit them.
Sometimes new designers provide clothing to small shops on a sale or return basis, meaning that you get paid only when your items sell. This reduces the risks for the retailer and makes them more willing to experiment, but it can be a risky strategy for you and should be used only as a last resort.
Once your clothes are in a shop, keep in touch. If possible, visit from time to time. Ask how sales are going and try to pick up on any customer feedback. If your work is selling well, keep the retailer informed about your future plans. As soon as you have placed one fashion collection you should be thinking about placing the next one.
Finally, never rely on just one retailer. Some retailers will try to establish exclusive deals. Limit them to having, at most, an exclusive option on one particular collection or in one particular locale. If a relationship with one retailer breaks down, you want to have others still selling your work so that your fashion business doesn’t go down too. Keeping up with retailers will keep your busy, but that’s business!